Service agencies work to fight budget cuts

Unions and social service agencies worked behind the scenes Tuesday to try to save programs for needy Illinois residents as thousands of people flocked to the state Capitol to rally for a tax increase to avoid deep budget cuts.

The groups have been calling, faxing and meeting with lawmakers to persuade them to raise the state income tax instead of axing $9.2 billion in spending. Gov. Pat Quinn and others have warned the cuts will gut a host of social service programs for children, senior citizens, the poor and disabled.

"There's not a human service provider that has gone untouched in the state so to find a lawmaker who has not received a call from a human service provider from Cairo to Rockford would be unimaginable," said David Ormsby, the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association spokesman.

IADDA represents substance abuse and treatment providers who could see state funding cut by more than 70 percent unless more revenue is pumped into the state budget, Ormsby said.

Targeting rank-and-file lawmakers can help put pressure on legislative leaders who decide which measures come up for votes. Some lawmakers have complained they're being inundated and office staff can't get work done, said Anthony Cole, IADDA's board chairman.

Cole, who also is vice president of the Haymarket Center in Chicago, said he personally has met with more than a dozen lawmakers in Springfield to plead the case for more money in the budget.

"They're more than willing to meet. It's just a hard call for any politician to vote for a tax increase. But if not now, when?" said Cole, whose substance abuse treatment center would have to turn away 5,000 people if its state funding is cut by $7 million.

Cole was back in the capital for Tuesday's rally and for lawmakers' first day of a special session to try to resolve the budget.

The rally drew more than 5,000 people, including Quinn, according to the Secretary of State's office. Police stopped letting people into the building at one point out of crowd safety concerns.

The state's largest employee union also is helping organize the fight against the threatened budget cuts.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has put up a Web site, encouraged members to send e-mails to local lawmakers and helped organize rallies, said local union council spokesman Anders Lindall. Besides state employees, the union's members include 5,000 people who work for community nonprofit agencies that serve the developmentally disabled and have been notified about potentially drastic state funding cuts.

SEIU Healthcare Illinois also represents home care and child care workers who could be affected by cuts. The union is part of the Campaign for Illinois' Future that has demonstrated outside the offices of 25 state representatives who didn't support a tax increase.

At Tuesday's rally, Paula LeRoy of Paris, who works for Human Resources Center of Edgar and Clark Counties, said her organization gets multiple daily e-mails from state agencies warning of budget cuts and asking the organization to contact lawmakers. The Human Resources Center in turn tells clients to contact officials in Springfield.

"When is the fervor going to actually reach our elected officials and bring this to a close?" asked LeRoy, sporting a "Please Raise My Taxes" button on her purse.

LeRoy said the people of Illinois "aren't naive" and understand something big must be done to deal with the state's historic deficit of at least $11.6 billion.

Quinn has said some budget cuts will be needed even with a tax increase. But lawmakers -- both Republican and Democrat -- have so far been uninterested in supporting one.

That's what Maria Pesqueira -- president of Mujeres Latinas En Accion, an agency that offers domestic violence, sexual assault and other support programs -- heard when she talked to state Rep. Michael J. Zalewski, a Democrat from Chicago's southwest side.

Zalewski told her taxpayers in his district didn't want to fork over more money in taxes. Pesqueira reminded him that some of those same taxpayers won't have services available if the state budget is whacked.

Pesqueira, who appeared earlier this week at a rally with Quinn to push for the tax increase, doesn't know if she persuaded Zalewski to change his mind.

"I got him to think about it," she said.